


Interlude: Key Distribution

by Crowsister



Series: Low-Key [4]
Category: DCU (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Headcanon-ish Rogues instead of YJ Canon Rogues, has minor spoilers for other sections of Low-Key, set up for later arcs in this series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-10-10 07:25:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17421599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crowsister/pseuds/Crowsister
Summary: Key finally meets the Team. Kind of.Or "The Low-Key Fic that Finally Justifies the Young Justice Tag"





	1. I know your life is speeding

**Author's Note:**

> Some context notes for people jumping in just for La'gaan (understandable):  
> -Theo is a cynical, paranoid, and jumpy little shit due to backstory reasons. This influences narration and how she sees people, so some narration will reflect that. I don't share her opinions on things, since I know OOC things from the YJ show and tie-in comics that she does not.  
> -This is set before Season 2, with a couple months passing since the events of the YJ video game.  
> -The Rogues are Captain Cold (Leonard - adult), Heatwave (Mick - adult), Mirror Master (Sam - adult), Mirror Apprentice (Evan - 20 years old), Trickster (Axel - 19 years old), Weather Wizard (Marco - 22 years old), Pied Piper (Hartley - 15 years old), and Key (Theo - 14 years old). Golden Glider (Lisa - Adult) is retired from cape stuff and runs her own ice skating teaching gig. The Rogues have been more or less turned into paid superheroes by Batman via some persuasion from the Flash.

####  **Central City, MO** **  
****December 15th, 2015**

Theo scrambled downstairs, into the lair in full Key attire. She almost fell down the second half of it, but Mick was there to quickly scoop her up.

“Whoa, ice cube, where’s the fire?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

“Zeta-tube, online, was that planned, was it scheduled, were we expecting visitors,” she rambled, not even fighting Mick’s grip on her as she peered over his shoulder down at the main floor of the lair behind him.

He blinked a few times before frowning. “Not that I know of.”

“Cool, they’re still transporting, we can cut them off-”

“Recognized,” the Zeta-Tube’s Identification protocol called out, “B-01: Nightwing.”

“Drop me,” Key whispered. “Get Desiree, the _best_ flamethrower niece, and-”

“Key,” Mick replied. “Calm down. Why’re you jumpy?”

“...I may have hacked into Justice League databases to go looking into some stuff,” Key muttered. “Maybe.”

“What kind of stuff?”

“...might’ve been looking into their squad of baby heroes,” she muttered. “The ones doing covert ops missions. I heard they had Blue Beetle now and that confused me since Blue Beetle was like. An adult? Where all the others on their roster were kids so I got curious and you _know what happens when I get curious, Mick, I’m sorry_.”

Mick squinted his eyes at her before he sighed. It was so close to the Scudder Sigh that Theo almost felt her entire soul leave her body. He grumbled, “Go get Cold. I’ll hold him off here before he gets fuckin’ nosy.” He frowned as he heard a loud scratching of metal on metal. “Nosier than he’s already fuckin’ been.” He put her down and she shook her head.

“I’m not gonna just throw you and Da-Leonard at the problem,” she replied. “I’ll ping Cold, but I’m not gonna hide behind you guys.” She raised her hand for dramatic effect, reaching out with her powers to Cold’s comm. “There. Left him a message telling him to get down here. That good?”

“Good enough,” Mick replied, his lips twitching. She felt her anxiety lift a little. Almost got a Heatwave Smile! He turned around, going down the stairs and she followed. She spotted that Mick’s workbench had been shifted a bit—that must’ve been the thunk. Nightwing was sitting on one of the metal stools they kept about the zeta-tube workshop area, looking nonchalant, but his gaze locked onto Mick and her immediately as they came into his line of sight.

“Heatwave, it’s been a while,” Nightwing replied. “Is that Key behind you?”

“Key can speak for herself, thanks,” she drawled, stepping out from behind Mick. “Look, I’m sorry I looked in places I was supposed to, I tried to patch things up on my way out but the security was gonna-”

“Patch things up?” Nightwing asked, raising an eyebrow. “You left a lot of distinct improvements on the system. How’d you do it?”

Key blinked twice under her mirrored visor, aware that he couldn’t see her confusion. “I...I broke into a Justice League database, left unintended improvements, and your big reaction is to question is _how_?”

“Last person who did anything like that was me and I was familiar with the system,” Nightwing answered, giving a small smirk and a shrug. “You couldn’t’ve been familiar with the system, so yeah. How’d you do it?”

“...I’m a technopath,” she answered as she slowly raised an eyebrow at him, “I just...do things with tech sometimes. I’m pretty sure the Justice League was already aware of that.”

“Sure I just-”

“You were scouting,” Leonard’s voice called from behind her. “She made her choice to be trained by _me_ and you go against that choice by snooping behind my back, Nightwing?”

She turned to where she heard Leonard and relaxed. “I technically brought their attention, Captain,” Key replied. “I was snooping where I shouldn’t’ve been and he’s probably here to chew my ears off.”

Cold came up behind her, putting a hand on her shoulder. She closed her eyes briefly, taking a breath and feeling her anxiety evaporate a little. She opened her eyes again, seeing Mick head up the stairs. Hopefully, he’d call the Flash.

“If I didn’t know better, Nightwing,” Cold replied. “I’d say you and the League didn’t trust me as much as Flash and Batman.”

“Why would you say that?” Nightwing asked.

“You’re snooping and you tried to do it without me knowing about it,” Cold answered, crossing his arms against his chest. “You’re a Bat, so some snooping was expected. We’ve found maybe 20 listening bugs throughout the house his employer’s provided us, we’re familiar with Bat-snooping.” Cold huffed. “But you were _scouting_ on top of snooping. Either you’re desperate for members for your team or you don’t think I can teach her right. Either way, doesn’t paint you in a flattering light from where I’m standing.”

Nightwing asked, “And the League?”

“I’ve had to blast some Green Lantern off my lawn,” Cold replied. “Redhead Green Lantern. Cocky, sure of himself and his ring.” Key noticed Nightwing raise an eyebrow at that. “Thought his fancy space ring made him immune to the cold. Week before that? Had to teach Plastic Man that he isn’t as sneaky of a sneak-thief as he thinks he is.”

Key snorted, putting a hand on top of the hand Cold had on her shoulder. “The Captain here gave them the _cold_ shoulder when they wouldn’t listen to me saying that I was fine. I’m not kidnapped, brainwashed, blackmailed, or any mixture thereof,” she replied. “I’m _exactly_ where I want to be, with a team who gives a shit about me and a mentor who’s actually _willing_ to work with me.”

“And you thought the team wouldn’t be willing to work with you?” Nightwing asked. “Is that why you chose the Rogues over us?”

“No offense, but I literally know jack and shit about your team,” Key answered. “The Rogues? I know them. I know their M.O. Your team? I know you work for the Justice League—the same Justice League that didn’t blink at Winters taking an interest in a kid, didn’t keep track of the situation, left me to his emotional abuse. I can only forgive so much of that, Nightwing. I don’t have a vendetta against the League for it, but it doesn’t exactly inspire the warm fuzzies either.” She shrugged. “Whereas with Captain Cold, with the Rogues? They’ve rescued me from shit more than once and I’d do the same for them. So no, I’m _not_ leaving my fa-” She stopped herself, clearing her throat. “My _team_ for yours, Nightwing.”

Nightwing stared at her as she spoke. He was focused on her, that much she could tell. As she spoke, a smile slowly spread across his face. He nodded slowly. “What about a part-time membership?” Nightwing asked, his voice softer than it had been before. “I think it’d solve your problem with Leaguers showing up.”

Theo looked up at Leonard, but he was in full “casing the situation” Snart-bitchface. She kept silent, following his lead as she turned her stare back to Nightwing.

Leonard sighed. “Give us the sales pitch,” he grumbled. “I know you’re _dying_ to give it.”

“If she takes a part-time membership with the team, she’ll be given an eval,” Nightwing replied, holding up a hand. With “eval”, he used his other hand to count out his fingers with every point. “That eval will be accessible by every League member with clearance. Between that, mission reports with her doing good work with your training, and her maybe making friends on the team, there’ll be a lot more people in your corner than just the Rogues, Batman, and Flash. Even as a part-time member, when you prove yourself as part of the team, you won’t have to face anything alone.” Nightwing popped his neck, stretching. “While on-base rooms, food, and other necessities are offered, it’s not mandatory. We’re not here to take you away from your current life, Key. I can introduce you to Blue Beetle, who can attest that he’s been able to still patrol his city and go to school while still balancing his responsibilities with the team.”

“Sure,” Key replied. She tilted her head and asked, drawling, “What experiences does the team offer that El Paso doesn’t, Nightwing?”

Nightwing stared impassively at her, but she caught the slight tilt of his head at that. Hook, line, and sinker, much Nightwing?

Leonard chuckled under his breath, loud enough for her to hear, and pat her shoulder. Giving her the go-ahead.

She stepped forward, folding her arms behind her back. Key continued, letting her smile show through her vocal tone, “From what I’ve read, Blue Beetle had a very busy introduction to this life.”

Key brought out her right hand from behind her back, gesturing back and forth as she spoke. “A fight with Peacemaker here, a brawl with a Green Lantern there, an accidental team-up with Captain Atom somewhere in the works?” She returned her right arm back behind her back, folding it with her left.

“Peacemaker, by credentials alone, would be a good mentor figure for someone with his capabilities.” She looked over at Leonard. “Captain Cold doesn’t have my exact capabilities, but I’ve learned tactics, snap decision making, infiltration, and teamwork from him.” Theo caught sight of the corner of Leonard’s mouth twitching. Suppressed smirk. She’d count that as a victory.

Key looked back at Nightwing. “I find it odd that none of the Justice League are willing to step up to give a new Blue Beetle that sort of attention and instead let you hoard him on your team.”

“He wanted to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor by being on a team that was Justice League affiliated,” Nightwing replied.

Key looked over to him and gave a slight shrug. “While I might’ve wanted to be on the League when I was six, I don’t anymore. I grew out of that when I found out that the League plays ball with assholes and sticks behind the red tape that corrupt corporations installed via lobbying.”

“We’ve got others on the team who simply want to network and learn,” Nightwing replied. “You’re surrounded in an echo chamber with the Rogues, who’ll all tell you the same thing.”

“And you want me to go with the mini-Justice League echo chamber instead?” Key asked. She heard Leonard snort. Theo: 2, Nightwing: 0.

Key turned to Nightwing, trying to contain her grin (she loved her helmet for hiding her expressiveness from the world, but it could only do so much). She did her best to keep her smugness from her voice. “So. What’s the next card you wanna play, Nightwing?”

“How about a tour of the base?” Nightwing asked, standing up from the stool he’d been sitting on. “Just a tour. If something big happens, you’ll probably see it eventually since the Rogues’ll be called in and we’ll have to coordinate. A tour’ll let you see what resources we have on hand and what kind of people we’ve got on the team.”

“Would that be the base in Happy Harbor?” Key asked. She gave herself another point as she noticed the eyes of his domino mask narrow slightly. Theo: 3, Nightwing: 0.

“Yes, it would.” Theo: 4, Nightwing: 0.

Key hummed, nodding. She looked over at Captain Cold. “Captain, can I go over to Nightwing’s playdate?” she asked.

He snorted. “Sure. But if it’s a kidnapping, we’ll go the Scorpions route. Don’t do anything rough: your shoulder’s almost there, but shit can still happen and go wrong.”

She nodded. “Will that Scorpions route be complete with bass and vocals?” Key asked, “Dancing until bodies are burning?”

Leonard nodded, smirking. “We’d get full Arthur with it.”

She whistled. “Hear that, Nightwing? The full Arthur. So, no kidnapping and you’ll never have to know what the full Arthur means.”

“... _great_ ,” Nightwing replied. “You wanna go now?”

Key shrugged. “I’ve got nothing better to do.”

* * *

**Happy Harbor, RI** **  
** **December 15th, 2015**

“Recognized, B-01: Nightwing. R-08: Key.”

Key blinked several times to get the brightness of the zeta-tube out of her eyes. She definitely preferred Mirror World travel over this. She followed Nightwing, folding her arms behind her back as she looked around the open space in front of her. She pinged the various security installations throughout the room, noting their positions. At the third hidden containment foam nozzle, she got distracted by the _giant_ holographic computer in the middle of the room.

This thing had memory for _miles_ . Subroutines included communications, connected to several private networks that connected with the Internet and other Justice League systems. It also worked as a training mediator, capable of keeping score with kinetic sensors in the glass floor that marked its presence against the rest of the concrete flooring. Theo knew what she wanted for Christmas and her birthday for the next several years (a fifteen year old technopath could _dream_ ). The things she could _achieve_ with a computer like this...except one with less emotional data attached, this one had too much frustration, rage, joy, fear, anxiety, _everything_ attached, it was giving her a headache the longer she looked at it, she should stop-

“Key, you okay?”

Key jumped, realizing Nightwing put his hand on her shoulder. “I’m fine. Got distracted by the holo-computer.”

He removed his hand, but gave her a small smile. “Yeah, we like it too. This is the Mission Room: we’ve got two zeta tubes, here and there. Holo-computer in the center is where we talk about mission details.”

She followed him around as he showed her about. She kept her comments to herself, figuring that he didn’t want to hear about her anxiety about the base being so...large. She was used to Rogue hide-y holes: they were cozy. If she took a wrong turn here, she was pretty sure she’d end up either in the pool of the main workout room or running into a wall. Key kept composed and in control, sidelining her anxiety as much as she could. She slowly started to ping other things, getting a handle on what kind of energy that teammates might have-

Key pulled her senses back, flinching physically when she sensed so much anger, clear memories as crisp as crystal-

* * *

_how could she? how could she think that was okay? she knew, she knew, she KNEW! she KNOWS what that means to me, knows me, knows it all, has known me for my whole life, and she did it ANYWAY!_

* * *

_my green hands shakily turning up a dial. 200 pounds wasn’t enough, need it heavier, need to be stronger, need to be better, better than HIM. she’ll see, they’ll see, i’m good ENOUGH._

* * *

-only tastes of them, but it was too much with the small tastes she got.

“Key, you okay?”

She looked up at Nightwing. When did she look down? When did she raise her hands up to stare at them? She took a deep breath.

“I...my powers are kind of wonky in here,” she answered, rubbing the back of her neck. “I um...when people use tech, sometimes they leave an echo of a memory. Usually emotions.” Key made a bittersweet chuckle. “Whoever’s been on your weightlifting gear? Just gave me two separate chunks of highly concentrated anger right between the eyes. Didn’t realize that when I started pinging shit.”

Nightwing tilted his head. Reminded her a little of Leonard when he did it. Copying Leonard to try to calm her down? Possibly. He asked, “Why were you pinging stuff?”

“Trying to get candid snapshots of people on this team,” Key answered. “Did it with my team too. I’ve felt anger in stuff before, but shit, nothing like that.” She shuddered, then rocked back and forth on her feet. “One was like swallowing fire. Other one was like...” Key trailed off, putting one of her hands in the other and squeezing it in an attempt to calm herself. “Don’t think I’ll sit right until I show you each of the machines and try to give you a head’s up for issues.” She bit her lip, shaking her head. “Usually don’t like revealing people like this, but this shit? You know my uncle? The fiery one?”

“Yeah,” Nightwing answered, keeping his voice quiet. “Long history of anger issues, according to his file.”

“Even with him, I’ve never felt anything like what I saw in that weight room,” Key muttered. “One was almost feral, the other was just...extremely worrying.”

Nightwing stared at her a moment before nodding. He walked back with her, but gave her a smile. “Not even on the team and you’re worrying about people.”

“I was into the hero business before my current team,” Key replied, feeling weirdly sheepish. “Helping people...it’s what I like doing, y’know?”

“Like that cat that got its claws stuck in a power box in Seattle,” Nightwing replied. He stopped when she stopped walking. “What? I’m a detective. It didn’t take that much to figure out that the helpful kid who helped Mrs. Boudreaux was you.”

Key rubbed her hand with her thumb, giving a half-shrug. “She was crying really bad and she wouldn’t leave her tabby to go call the Fire Department, so...I did my metaphorical magic.” She chuckled. “She tried to pay me and I told her no. Guess that’s how you found out about it?”

“She put your story in with her recipe for her homemade beignets on her blog,” Nightwing answered. “It was sweet. Both the beignets and the story. The story’s why I thought you’d be a good fit on the team.”

She nodded. She folded hands in front of her as they walked into the weight room.

“May fall over,” she replied, “if I do, the helmet should keep me from getting head damage, but-”

“I’m fast enough to catch you and you look like you weigh nothing,” Nightwing replied. “It’s fine.”

Nodding sharply, Key walked about the room with one of her hands extended in front of her. She kept her pinging field narrow to one point, not wanting to overload herself. Most of the machines had various levels of exhaustion, disappointment, and triumph to them, but two had that anger to it. There was one against the wall that looked more like an extreme garbage crusher than weight machine that had that echo of “she KNEW” in it. She touched it, seeing the ghostly outline of who she was looking for.

“Five foot, ten inches,” she muttered, “maybe 180 pounds of pure muscle, from what I can see? Mentions a she constantly in the echo. I could pick his silhouette out from a line-up.” Key stepped back from the machine, feeling dizzy. She focused at a tile on the wall in front of her to boot the dizziness out of her system faster.

She walked around the room and found something smaller and more fitting to the term “workout machine”. Sure, she could never use this machine herself, but it looked more feasible than the other one she checked out. It had the second memory, which flashed to her mind when she touched the machine.

* * *

_feel something on the sides of my head twitch as i exert effort. 350 pounds, if i can make it to sixty reps, i’ll beat yesterday’s record. i’ll prove them all wrong. i’m good enough. i graduated from the conservatory, if i can do that, i can show them. i’m more than what they think._

_arms give out and it all comes tumbling down-_

* * *

Key bit her tongue to stop from crying out, stumbling back from the machine. Nightwing caught her and she flinched at being touched. He helped her stand, saying words she couldn’t process, and she bolted.

Everything felt dark as she ran, but she couldn’t stop herself from running. Her heart pounded as she felt a mobius loop of anxiety—the anxiety and self-deprecation she felt from the machine was too familiar, too close to home. Theo felt like she was clawing at her own wrists, but knew her hands were at her sides. Her throat and mouth felt dry.

* * *

_Theo looked up at the clock. 3:00 AM. Just needed to push a little more, she felt close to understanding this homework assignment. She’d completed it about ten times, filling out the copies her step-mom had filled out over and over._

_“Fuck her,” Theo muttered, rubbing her eyes. “I’m good enough.” She looked at the ceiling, unable to cram the feeling of being small and useless into the back of her mind. Theo sniffled before looking back down at the assignment._

_“One more time.”_

* * *

She snapped out of it when something hard hit her left shoulder. Theo grunted as she fell to her knees.

“Neptune’s Beard!” a gruff voice called out. There was a soft mutter of a familiar language and a gentle blue light lit the air.

Theo kept looking at her hands, trying to even out her breathing as her left shoulder screamed in pain. She heard whoever it was loudly growl something in that same language and she heard them kneel quickly.

“Hey,” they replied. “You the new fish Nightwing was showing around before the lights went off?”

Theo sputtered, “The...the lights are off?” Shit, the blue light wasn’t in her head. She inhaled sharply, closing her eyes and withdrawing her powers from the base. The lights flickered back on. “S-sorry. Yeah, um...I’m Key.” She attempted a laugh, but hissed as her shoulder throbbed. She looked up at him, trying to keep herself from gritting her teeth. Tall, fishy, green. “I’d try to be more friendly and sociable, but my shoulder’s killing me. Moving’s not gonna be a thing with the bleeding from the ripped stitches in my shoulder.”

“Lagoon Boy,” he replied. “Here, can we get the jacket off? I can at least repair the damage I did.”

Theo snorted. “You weren’t the idiot running full force in the dark,” she replied. “That was me. Feel free with the jacket, if you’re okay with helping remove that, but the helmet stays.”

“It’s your shoulder that’s bleeding, not your face, right?” he asked.

She nodded, taking a deep breath. Okay, time to trust a semi-random stranger. Not her first time, but she was on more edge this time. She wondered, as he gently unzipped her jacket, if Leonard would let her borrow a cold gun if this guy touched her wrong. But this...Lagoon Boy was keeping a pretty alright respect going. Possible medic training? She filed it away for later, watching his hands the best she could while keeping herself still.

He grunted a word or two softly, seeing her shoulder. She caught “fault” and puzzle pieces started to slide very slowly together. Green hands. Things on the sides of his head. Voice matched the cadence of the echo in the machine (tone was off, but everyone’s echo voice was always different from their actual voice). Best candidate she’d seen for a match of the self-loathing and self-deprecation she felt. Might be making quick assumptions, but it was her best lead thus far.

Theo held herself still, but found it was easier to not flinch from Lagoon Boy’s touch than Nightwing’s. Maybe it was the slow way Lagoon Boy moved, clearly showing where he was going to touch and when. Maybe it was the way that he seemed to be so easy to read for her, face scrunching in concentration without some domino mask in the way. The lack of pupils threw her off for a moment, but following his line of sight was slowly getting easier as he examined her bicep.

He cleared his throat. “I can do some magic to help,” he replied. “I’m just looking at other stuff to make sure I don’t mix your muscles the wrong way when it gets knitted back together.”

“Makes sense, like making sure your wires don’t get crossed when plugging stuff in,” she replied. “Know your roots before you plant or something.”

He nodded, his shoulders relaxing a bit. “Yeah, good way to put it.” He poked her tricep lightly before bringing his hand up to her shoulder. He started tracing a slow circle around the wound, muttering softly. Blue light started to gently glow from the circle and she closed her eyes, expecting pain like the stitches and like Winters’s healing. But it just felt like someone slowly icing up her shoulder, with the throbbing slowly subsiding. She opened her eyes, looking over at her shoulder. It was completely healed with a small scar, tracing the path of the bullet that had caused the whole problem in the first place. It left a scar with her other bullet scar, the two running almost parallel.

She stared at her shoulder in quiet amazement as Lagoon Boy replied, “I couldn’t get it fully healed, the scar will probably fade in time, it’s really light, so it’d probably be hard for people to notice it without people knowing what to look for. I’m not the best at this stuff, it’s been forever since I’ve done any healing magic, a friend of mine is a lot better at it than I am, I’m more of a combat magic kind of person, but I think I patched you up enough that you could get to a real healer or doctor and get that double-checked.”

Theo slowly stretched her arm, relishing in the articulation she hadn’t had in _forever_ because of that stitching. This felt even better than the last time she had her stitches removed for the first bullet wound she took for Leonard. She felt tears well up in her eyes and she blinked them away quickly. She looked over at Lagoon Boy, who was clearly nervously fidgeting.

“Thank you,” she said quietly. “This feels...completely healed and, quite frankly, amazing. I was expecting it to hurt when you healed it, but it didn’t hurt at all.”

He grinned at her. “Glad I could help. You’ve never been healed by magic before?”

Theo paused. Winters’s healing had been harsh light, distant and excruciatingly hot. “Not like that,” she replied. She stood up, sweeping her slightly bloody jacket over her left shoulder and offering him a hand up. “Proper introduction: I’m Key, a technopath.”

He took her hand, pulling himself up. “Lagoon Boy, but if you wanna save time, La'gaan’s fine. What’s a technopath?”

“I can control tech stuff with my brain,” she replied, letting go of his hand and motioning up at the ceiling. “I uh...was kinda freaking out and that’s why all the lights were off.”

La'gaan tensed, looking around. “Was there an attack on the base?”

She shook her head. “I would’ve told you immediately if there was,” she answered, “an emergency like that would be a good thing to throw a combat mage at, rather than hog him to myself like a whimpering guppy.”

“Guppies don’t whimper,” La’gaan replied, raising an eyebrow at her. “Fish don’t _do_ noises like that.”

“Sure, but fish pun, guppy for puppy.” She smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head. “Couldn’t help myself. Sorry if that was stepping over a line with the whole fishy appearance thing.”

La’gaan blinked, but then smiled a thousand watt smile that made Theo’s brain bluescreen for a moment. “I don’t have a problem with fish puns,” he replied, “leopard shark can’t change its scales.”

A delighted laugh escaped Theo before she could stop herself. “I’m glad you’re not crabby about the puns. It would’ve been orcaward. Kinda tench, maybe?”

He nodded, trying to dial back the smile, but Theo could still see it threaten to widen with every pun. He started walking and she followed him, not having much better to do.

“I’m fine with fish puns, but I try not to use them too much,” La’gaan said. “I don’t want the team taking fishue with ‘em, y’know?”

Theo nodded, holding in snickers. “Findeed, I can understand that.”

La’gaan cracked first, laughing, but Theo soon followed with a storm of snickers.

“Good to know we won’t have to find out whatever a full Arthur is,” Nightwing’s voice replied. Theo looked over her shoulder, finding him to be leaning against the wall behind them casually. She kept her composure, but gave him a point. He might’ve been following her the whole time without her knowing. Theo: 4, Nightwing: 1. “You okay, Key?”

“Doing better now than I was earlier,” Theo answered. “Hell, better.” She lit up her visor with a thumbs up emoji, making La’gaan laugh again.

“I know this trick, you’re overselling me to make me feel better,” La’gaan replied, crossing his arms and trying not to look too pleased. Theo would’ve killed for him to have some kind of tech on him that she could try to read for his emotional data, figure out if the confidence was a facade to throw her off or if it was sincere. But he didn’t, so that left her the only option of flying through this social interaction blind.

She turned off the emoji, tilting her head and letting her grin into her voice. “Is it working? Because again, I was the one running full throttle in the dark. Blame pretty squarely falls to me.”

“Okay, but I can _see_ in the dark, Key,” La’gaan replied, snorting. “Kind of.”

Theo raised her eyebrows, knowing it’d be a lost gesture since neither of them could see the action. “Kind of.”

“Wasn’t fully adjusted to the dark yet, takes me a few minutes-”

Theo pinged the lights, getting the data. “The lights had been off a minute and twenty-three seconds, so not a few minutes.”

“Neptune’s Beard!” La’gaan groaned. “Could’ve still put on a light!”

Theo could see Nightwing looking between them like it was a tennis game and Theo felt every one of her showmanship instincts flare up. She crossed her arms, putting out her hip and tilting her head to the left. “You have good instincts. If it had been an enemy, you were taking advantage of the dark to ambush them!”

La’gaan squinted at her and she wondered if it was conscious or unconscious. Was it a way to get around not having pupils? Did he fall into a new body language pattern to get around having some different facial features? Did the fins factor into that? Oh she needed to watch the fins now, if they did cute movements, she’d die on the spot.

Nightwing got her attention when he raised a hand to his ear. She pinged his comlink, but he wasn’t getting any signal. “It’s been fun, Key, but I’ve just been called. Hey, La’gaan, can you give her the tour?”

Theo raised her eyebrows. What was his goal here, pretending he was being called away? What was his plan? Play dumb, Theo, play dumb, let’s ride this one out.

La’gaan answered, “Sure.” Theo watched his fins carefully, like she’d watch Leonard’s jaw sometimes, and was rewarded with a fraction of movement, a sharp flick back towards his head. The corners of his mouth were also tilted less for a smile, so possibly fin flick of annoyance? Disappointment? Negative emotion was a solid guess.

Nightwing smiled. “Play nice then, kids.” He walked off.

Once she was extra-certain he was out of observable range, she put the words “He’s setting us up” on her visor.

La’gaan sighed. “Yeah. Yeah he is.”

“Part of his attempts to get me to say yes to this team,” Key replied.

La’gaan blinked. “Wait, you’re not a volunteer?”

“Nope, I was scouted,” Key answered. “This is the second time he’s tried to get me onto his team and this time, he’s being direct. Let’s walk and talk, you volunteered?”

La’gaan nodded, leading her down the hallway. They sprinkled their conversation in between him pointing out various different rooms. “You bet! Before he went rogue, a friend of mine did a lot of good work on this team and said a lot of good about it. I asked if I could join rather than being scouted.”

Theo felt her lips twitch at the term “rogue”. He didn’t know, but that just made it better. She forced herself to sober up quickly. “How do you mean, went rogue?”

La’gaan stiffened. “That-” his words dipped into that strangely familiar language again, all soft hisses and sharp consonants. Theo guessed three words at most, one very long word at least. “He betrayed our king, right after another good friend of ours died.”

“Shit,” Theo exhaled. “That’s deeply shitty.”

He nodded stiffly. “I was on the team before then, a year or so. We do do good work on this team, but sometimes, we learn things at times we really shouldn’t.”

“The risk of working covert ops,” Theo replied. “Doesn’t make it any less shitty for you though, I’m sorry.”

He shrugged. “All we can do is keep on swimming, right?”

“What can we do but swim, swim, swim?” Theo answered, putting the right tune into her words.

He grinned again and she marveled at how easily he smiled. Was it a disarming tactic? A distraction? If so, him smiling was highly effective at both of those.

Theo asked, “So, what do you consider good work? I know zero things about what this team does and I might be more inclined to join if I knew what was up.”

“What, the Justice League connection doesn’t say enough about that?” La’gaan asked.

“Nope,” Theo answered, popping the p. “Call me cynical, but that really doesn’t reassure me at all. I’ve read some mission files-”

“How?” La’gaan asked, his eyebrows rising incredulously.

Theo did jazz hands as they were getting close to a common room area. “Technopath,” she sung again, grinning behind her visor.

“Okay, but what exactly does that mean-”

Theo cut him off by raising her left hand in front of her and steadying herself with her right on his shoulder. She quickly surface-pinged things from in front of them and picked a toaster. She willed it to toast differently, planning a shape. She whistled innocently, jogging ahead and popping the toast early as she jogged. She plucked the toast out, showing off the distinct key shape that she had burned into the toast. “I’m the Key to all Earth-based tech is what that means,” she drawled as he caught up, smirking under her visor.

He snorted. “So the toast is burnt and you can flicker lights. Whoo hoo.”

She smirked wider. “I know, they’re small tricks, but they’re tricks nonetheless,” she lied like a liar. “It’s how I read files, at any rate. A little nudge here and there, you know?”

“Uh huh,” he replied.

“But they’re all very bare bones, no details at all, like how can you call those mission reports-”

La’gaan laughed, slapping his knee. “You read the dummy files.”

Theo pressed her lips together. “Dummy files?”

“Mission leader writes two different reports after every mission,” La’gaan answered. “The real report and the dummy file.”

Theo knew in that moment that if she did join this team, she was going to absolutely tear through the database and hunt down the real reports. One because she liked knowing the real details of things (curiosity was her weakness and she was very aware of this) and two because this was absolutely humiliating.

La’gaan’s laughter seemed to subside for a moment, but flared up again as she flicked up her helmet’s visor around her mouth and pouted at him. She sat on one of the stools by the counter in the kitchenette, monching on her toast as she waited for him to stop. His laugh was cute, which was the only thing making up for him laughing at her. It was a loud belly laugh that somehow was also a snicker, it reminded her faintly of dolphin noises, but deeper in pitch and _warmer_ , somehow.

Theo quickly finished her toast as she heard another voice call out, “La’gaan? Is that you?”

La’gaan straightened, grinning wider. “Sure is, angelfish!”

Theo snapped her helmet back in place quickly as a girl floated into the room. The girl rang a bell in Theo’s mind, looking familiar.

“Oh! Hello Megan!” she replied, putting her palm to her forehead briefly. “Nightwing said there’d be someone new! Hi, I’m M’gann M’orzz, Miss Martian.”

Then it clicked and Key put that little nugget into the back of her head to go over later. “Nice to meet you,” Key replied, “I’m Key.”

“Where’s Nightwing? I thought he’d be showing you around.” M’gann reminded Key intensely of Lisa, specifically Lisa’s “kiddo” face. The one Lisa brought out for the small kids at the ice-skating rink, make sure she didn’t spook them with how boisterous and energetic she could be.

Key snorted. “I think he’s trying to use social psychology to get me onto the team by leaving me with someone he figures I’d get along better with.” She made a door swooshing sound with her mouth, gesturing at La’gaan. “Enter La’gaan, who made a pretty good first impression by completely healing a bullet wound I had in my shoulder.”

La’gaan squinted at Key again, opening his mouth, but stopped when M’gann giggled. Oh, he was so far gone, Theo noted as he grinned goofily at her giggling. It was cute as puppies. Or, in La’gaan’s case, guppies.

“That’s great,” M’gann replied, “a lot of people are usually put off by how expressive he is.”

Theo blinked under her helmet at that, eyebrows furrowing. Red flag? Maybe, the statement reminded her a lot of her ex-stepmom, but she could be jumping the gun, so she was unsure, filed it away for later. She replied, “Not me.”

“Or the fish face,” La’gaan replied, opening an arm to let M’gann insert herself into a one-armed hug. Theo filed that away too. Dating, maybe?

Theo shrugged. “Again, not me. The expressiveness is relaxing in a way that Nightwing’s domino mask and cloak-and-dagger methods aren’t. It helps that the expressive face is cute.”

The statement was what Leonard called a feeler. Feelers were for when you suspected certain things with your mark: a specific emotion, something on their person (an example of a lazy feeler that Leonard gave was “is that a knife in your pocket or are you just happy to see me”), a certain acquaintance, anything. You could make them as blunt and lazy or as subtle and clever as you wanted.

They took the bait. La’gaan stiffened, protest etched into every bit of his shoulders and skepticism set into his face. M’gann was subtler, an eyebrow raising a fraction of a hair here and her smile widening ever so slightly. Where La’gaan had stiffened like it was a blow, M’gann had relaxed like hearing someone else call La’gaan (her maybe boyfriend) cute was a relief.

“Told you!” M’gann chirped up at him, smiling.

La’gaan grumbled, hiding his face in her neck. Probably dating, Theo decided. Though, she didn’t have an immediate conclusion to come to from their reactions. Not enough data. She’d need more before she jumped to any conclusions. Theo didn’t want to jump any sharks. No matter how cute they were, said metaphorical shark could be in a happy relationship.

La’gaan and M’gann slowly finished the tour, the two being cute with each other. Theo watched them like she would any mark, trying to get a read. They _seemed_ happy, to an extent. Lisa would call it sitcom happy, like that one couple in the mall that she pointed out as a good pickpocket mark. Seemingly natural PDA that didn’t get more intense around the various people around the base, but did lighten up around one guy in particular. His proportions looked familiar, so Theo brought up the outline from the workout room.

Ding, ding, ding, we have a match.

The guy was the spitting image of Superman, it was absolutely impossible to ignore. Theo immediately guessed that he was the Superboy the dummy files, forums, and Daily Planet talked about.

“Key, this is Superboy,” M’gann replied as they approached.

He looked her up and down, but it wasn’t a greasy checkout move. Theo didn’t think this guy could make those, at least not right at this moment, not by how stiff he was holding himself. On edge, reminded her a little of Marco whenever he was around a the Central City Coverage weather truck. No, the look was him trying to figure out if she was a threat or not.

Key let a smiling drawl take charge on the tone of her voice. “Nice to meet you. What kind of sales pitch for the team are you gonna try? Maybe you’ll actually answer my question instead of trying to distract me with a tour and nice company.”

He crossed his arms, staring her down. Yeah, she definitely needed the Marco preset for this, the two of them could’ve been soul-twins with how the two hold themselves. Superboy asked, “What question is that?”

She held her ground, tilting her head up at him and putting a question mark on her visor. “What kind of work does this team _do?”_

“Covert ops.” God, could this guy get anymore annoyingly closed off and grouchy?

Key let out a long and (perhaps later she’d admit this to herself) melodramatic sigh. “Not what I meant. What sort of missions?”

“You don’t have clearance for that.”

“Let me make this clear: I don’t have full trust in the Justice League. That association does not give this team a clear pass of trustworthiness that others seem to think it’s got,” Key replied. “Why should I trust the leadership here for a secret team that the world doesn’t even _know_ about and hence can’t monitor for corruption? Does the team just work bigger cases or are the little people looked after too? Why should I join a team that I know _nothing_ about beyond that they work covert ops and that they work for and/or with the Justice League?”

Superboy stared at her for a long time and she wondered, briefly, if the rumors about him not having heat vision was true. If it was, he definitely had a backup in the angry glare he packed.

“The first mission this team ever went on,” he replied, “was to put out a fire at a lab because the Justice League was busy. They found me, in a pod, at that lab. This team’s the only reason why I have any freedom. Nightwing is the only member left from that mission.”

Theo held her ground, but let her body shift from the combative stance she’d adopted into something more relaxed. She swung her jacket back on, giving Superboy a nod.

“The team’s the reason why you get to be a person and that’s why you trust it,” Theo replied.

Superboy nodded. “Yeah.”

Theo was keenly aware of La’gaan and M’gann watching this whole exchange go down, as much as she was trying to focus solely on the Superman-Marco lovechild in front of her (because, if this guy was truly anything like Marco, one misstep and she’d have to be dealing with the grudge held for the next year and a half or until she risked her life for him, whatever came first). Theo took a step back from Superboy, the two of them having gotten in each other’s spaces through the course of their conversation and let herself have a look at her two tour guides.

M’gann was soft. There wasn’t any other adjective for it, she was an open book of tenderness at the scene, the memories the scene provoked, and/or both. She was also, notably, physically untangled from La’gaan. Theo realized, in hindsight, she had been since Superboy acknowledged their tour trio. M’gann’s shoulders were lowered, her eyes looked a little wet, and her hand was slowly lowering like she had raised it to reach out to someone while Superboy and Theo had been talking.

La’gaan was tense. But it wasn’t a combat tense. Theo could tell the difference from experience, he was trauma tense. Expecting bad shit to happen tense. He was trying to hide it behind a mask of stoicness and on someone else, the mask might’ve worked. On Theo, it was like looking into a mirror. Or maybe she was self-projecting. Fuck, she was gonna have to go straight to Gina after this, she needed a normal person’s perspective on all this social shit.

“Well,” Theo drawled, “this has been educational. Thanks for the actual answer, Superboy. Thanks for helping with the tour, Miss Martian.” She did finger guns at La’gaan. “Thanks for the tour _and_ the help with the shoulder. No arguments, I owe you for that. If I end up not joining the team and you want to cash that favor, I’m centered in Central City.” She did a wink on her helmet’s visor-screen and smiled when he snorted at that bad pun. “Okay, Nightwing, out of the corner, let’s boogey before the base gets hit with a full Arthur.”

Nightwing stepped out from around a corner, smirking. “You didn’t know I was there.”

“Nope, it was gonna be real awkward if you weren’t,” Theo replied, tone teasing. “But it was a good guess.”

Nightwing got her through the Zeta Tubes back to the base and, as soon as they were fully on the other side, she immediately slugged him in the shoulder.

“You set all of that up,” she replied. “All of that. You put me right in the middle of some high intensity drama.”

He rubbed his shoulder, somehow meeting her eyes. “Actually, that wasn’t the scenario I was hoping for.”

“Seriously?” Theo asked.

“I was hoping you’d run into Beast Boy. The usual schedules that the team has made that pretty likely. Superboy wasn’t supposed to be on base for another hour.” He sighed. “This is what I get for trying to use a Bat-card.”

“No shit, you’re not Batman,” Theo replied, sighing.

“You figure out who matched the echoes you felt?” he asked.

Theo snorted. “Yeah. La’gaan and Superboy.”

Nightwing sighed. “Had a feeling it was them. When can I expect an answer from you?”

“Give me a day to think it over. I’ll get in touch, I promise.”

* * *

Leonard was cooking in the kitchen when Theo caught up with him. He didn’t even flinch as she hugged around his waist and groaned into his back. “Was the visit that bad?”

“Nightwing tried to pull social engineering bullshit and it backfired _spectacularly,”_ she grumbled, resting her cheek on his back. “Made me very glad I picked our family, Dad.”

Leonard smiled. “So, not gonna do part time with them then?”

Theo groaned. “That’s the shitty part.”

“Theophania Soliani-Snart, tell me if Lisa owes me money.”

Theo furrowed her eyebrows, letting him go and settling beside him. She handed him cheese to put into the mac and cheese he was making. “Leonard, did you and Lisa bet on my visit?”

“The whole team did,” he answered. “Hartley put thirteen bucks on you having a pun-related incident-”

“That’s cheating, I love puns.”

“Mick put thirty on you slugging someone in the shoulder-”

“In my defense, it was a stressful and potential hostile-rich environment.”

“Lisa put ten on you Rogues-style attaching to someone during your visit. I put ten on you not getting attached to someone during your visit-”

“You owe Lisa money.”

Leonard dropped his wooden spoon against the counter and Lisa cheered from the other room.

“Ha! My favorite words, my name and money, in one sentence!” Lisa clapped her hands together, skipping into the kitchen. “I won our bet, didn’t I! I told you, Lenny, I told you she was too much like you to _not_ pick up one of those tweenage superheroes. I told you, pay up!”

Leonard fished out his wallet from his parka and, without looking, threw it over his shoulder. Directly at Lisa’s forehead. Lisa dodged in an artful twist, plucking it from the air with a flick of her hand.

Theo felt the big weight in her lessen at the exchange, no longer feeling so anxious that her ribs ached. “Sorry, Dad.”

“You’re not sorry,” he grumbled, picking up his spoon.

Lisa hugged Theo from behind, resting her chin on Theo’s head. “And that’s why she’s my favorite niece!”

“I’m your only niece.” Theo tried to be deadpan, but she couldn’t stop herself from smiling. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Leonard smiling ever-so-slightly too. “What were the other bets? C’mon, you had to bet on more than just that.”

“Sam figured you’d steal some tech to bring back, but I think that’s him being hopeful. Axel bet you’d get a crush on someone. Evan put money on you showboating and pulling your stitches,” Lisa replied. She paused, looking at Theo’s bare shoulder. “Wait. Where are your stitches?”

Theo grinned. “La’gaan healed it.” Theo gave them the play-by-play, how she got caught off guard by pinging shit around the team’s base, as Leonard cooked and Lisa fussed over Theo’s helmet hair (“Your poor hair!” “The safety is _worth it.”_ “Everybody else just wears a domino mask, it’s fine!” “It’s _not fine,_ what if they get shot in the head, Lisa?” “I was fine with a domino mask and my hair was _fabulous.”_ “Auntie Lisa, I would go absolutely bananas if I wore my hair as long as you do.”).

“So, La’gaan,” Leonard replied. “Tell me about this La’gaan.”

“You’d be able to read him immediately, I think,” Theo replied, sitting down at the table with a bowl of mac and cheese. “He’s so transparent, like opacity zero percent kind of. He’s not human, he’s Atlantean, but he’s not like Aquaman. He’s all fishy, appearance-wise, and it’s cute. He’s not like _ultra-fishy,_ like still has a pretty rectangular humanoid facial structure, kinda like really young Harrison Ford but with fish features, but he’s got these fins on the sides of his head and they’re mega-cool, Dad, I think they might play into some emotional tells? Subtle movement, so maybe not a whole lot of articulation in the fins, but they _do_ move. He can do magic too, obviously, he said he was a combat mage, but he was able to heal my shoulder up like. No problem.”

Leonard listened to all of this with mission-level attentiveness, sitting near her at the table with his own bowl. “What’s he like personality-wise?”

Theo hummed. “Thus far, from one meeting? I think he’s passionate, stubborn, possibly major self-deprecation issues, I’m not sure? I think I got an echo of him from one of the workout machines and also he stiffened when I tossed out a feeler that he was cute.”

Lisa made a strangled squeaking noise, but Leonard gave her a _Look._ Leonard looked back to Theo. “Okay. So do we know where he lives?”

Theo tilted her head. “...no?” She straightened. “No. No you are _not_ kidnapping him.”

“I just have a few questions,” Leonard replied, smirking softly at her. “It’d take five minutes, tops.”

“Three if you let Mick in on it,” Lisa replied. “I’m pretty sure he’s got some fish fillet jokes from the last time he tried fighting Aquaman that he’d be fine using for this.”

“No. Absolutely not.” Theo hated the way that her vocal pitch ascending like some kind of leaping frog, croaking its way up a flight of stairs. “He is fine with fish puns, but that’s taking things a bite too far.”

Lisa’s eyebrows shot up at that phrasing and Theo sank her face into her forearms against the table. Leonard barked a laugh, rubbing Theo’s back with a hand.

“Okay, let’s give her some mercy, she’s been overclocked today,” Leonard replied. “So, you’re thinking of doing part time with this team because of the reasons Nightwing gave us earlier plus you like this guy?”

Theo kept her forehead against one arm, but raised the other. She held up fingers with each of her points. “One, I owe him for the shoulder thing. He thought he owed me, but nah, that’s not how this works. He doesn’t know it, but he’s playing in Rogues rules now. Two, I am already enough trouble without imperious members of the Justice League showing up on our lawn and being generally annoying. If Nightwing’s right and this works, then I’m willing to put a little time that way. Three, I realized that...they’d look at the Rogues the same way I was looking at them. We’re a secret team that not many people know exist and thus, aren’t monitored. I was throwing stones out of a glass house.” Theo ran a hand through her hair, sitting up and sighing. “I’d want people to give the Rogues a chance with this whole hero thing. Fair thing with this covert squad of sidekicks and proteges is to give them a chance too. That way, they may think twice in the rare event that I tell them what other team I’m on.”

“You gonna get your Zeta Tube number changed to keep up with that?” Leonard asked.

“Hell no, I’m a Rogue, R-08 always,” Theo answered, “I’m going to leave all the clues right out in the open. The Bats will all know, there’s no hiding it from any of them, but I can make that information a niggling pain for them by flaunting informational security disregard just _enough._ See if anyone connects the dots with the stuff. Like what the Tailor said about my suit: just enough to make a connection if someone knows.”

Leonard smirked. “Sounds fair, good punishment with Nightwing snooping.”

“Smart enough that I can get a cold gun?” Theo asked, waggling her eyebrows.

“Don’t push your luck, kid,” Leonard snorted, ruffling her hair.


	2. and it isn't stopping

####  **Central City, MO** **  
****December 16th, 2015**

Key waited in full costume in the zeta-tube room. It wasn’t her first time wearing it (maybe the twenty-fifth?), but it never stopped feeling like the first time. The sense of feeling alive, of feeling 100% in her skin, never really left. The subtle armor in the leather-like jacket and pants, the hidden pockets, the easy ping of external hard-drives stitched into the secret pockets inside of of the jacket, the black-white-blue coloration of the suit, really it was only missing one key accessory.

“I can’t have just a tiny cold gun?” she asked.

Cold snorted. “Not yet. You haven’t passed the build test yet,” he replied.

Key crossed her arms, pouting under her helmet. “I can assemble one with my powers no problem.”

“You don’t get one until you can build it by hand, without your powers,” Cold replied. “That’s how it’s gonna be. Makes you appreciate it more.”

“What kind of old man nonsense,” Key grumbled just loud enough for him to hear.

In two of his long-legged strides, Cold walked over and put a hand on top of her helmet. She looked at him before he shook her helmet a little and she laughed.

“Recognized,” the Zeta-Tube’s Identification protocol called out, “B-01: Nightwing.”

They straightened next to each other, Cold putting on his Snart-bitch face beneath his goggles and Key folding her hands by her lower back and squaring her shoulders. Nightwing walked out of the Zeta-Tube, looking at them both.

“What’s it gonna be?” he asked.

Key answered, “I’m in, part time.”

Nightwing smirked. “Nice. We’ll just have to get some of your file changed-”

“My zeta-designation stays the same,” Key replied. “I’m a Rogue. I figure any Bat-related capes on the team will know that, but we’re not going to announce that. Capiche?”

Nightwing looked back and forth between Captain Cold and Key. He asked, settling on Captain Cold, “Did you teach her to talk like a movie gangster?”

Leonard smirked. “She came like that.”

“I did,” Key replied. “So. Before we go make proper introductions, I have a few questions as to how I’m allowed to make introductions...”

* * *

**Happy Harbor, RI** **  
** **December 16th, 2015**

“First order of business, we have a new member of the team. This is Key.”

Theo forced herself into the Key persona, channeling chill Captain Cold energy with every molecule in her body. She kept her hands in her pockets, suddenly so grateful for Gambi insisting on the main pockets for hands instead of just pockets for gadgets. She looked around the room, taking a soft inhale as she gave a greeting nod to the room.

“I’m a technopath,” Key replied. “I just do some small nudges, here and there. Nothing major.” She kept her body language nonchalant, just like she’d planned. “If anyone wants to spar, I can show it a little. Give you all a taste of what I’m capable of.”

She looked around, rocking back on her heels. There were various signs of curiosity spread amongst faces. Nobody seemed to openly point out that she was lying, but there was a soft insect-like clicking from somewhere in the crowd that seemed familiar. Key didn’t let herself get engrossed in it, simply looking around.

After a moment, one of the shorter members of the crowd stepped up. He was green and wore a white and red cape-suit. By the monkey features, Key guessed this was the Beast Boy that she had been “supposed” to meet, by Nightwing’s estimates.

“I’m down for a tumble, Daft Punk,” he replied, shapeshifting into an ape and back again. He pouted as Key didn’t even flinch at the quick shapeshifting.

Key chuckled. “Daft Punk. Oh, I’d been torn on what to use as a backing soundtrack, but that’s good, I like that.” She flashed a wink on her helmet before stepping into where she knew the sparring computer’s boundaries were, letting a connection between her and the holo-computer flow. She quickly blocked herself off from the emotional data it carried, letting herself simply feel the kinetic sensors like they were an extension of her own nervous system. Every footstep as the others got off felt like it was a poke against her own brain, but it’d be worth it at the beginning.

She could feel as Nightwing started the sparring protocol, feel and see Beast Boy as he bounced on his feet. As the countdown set to 0, Key raised a hand and shut off the lights. Before anyone could react, she lit up the sparring circle in bright blue light, using its hologram facilities to provide light. She bowed at the waist as she began to play “Robot Rock”. With every one of the initial beats, she had the holocomputer’s facilities make fully hologram copies of herself through the sparring circle.

She and the copies rose to a standing position, all wearing smiles on their helmets. “Just a nudge,” they all replied. “Here and there.”

“Well aren’t you just a barrel full of monkeys?” Beast Boy asked, shapeshifting into a monkey. He then shifted into a wolf, charging forward at one of her fakes.

She popped it as he made contact, making herself look like she popped too as she coaxed the holocomputer to make her invisible. It wasn’t the inherent use of the hologram capabilities, but a little encouragement went a long way with emotionally taxed systems like this holocomputer was (she’d have to sit down with it at some point. Key was so used to Rogue reverence of tech, the gentle treatment of it and the respect they gave their tech. This team didn’t share that, not if this holocomputer was any indication-the fight, Key, focus).

She snuck around invisibly, letting the music mask her steps and the lightshow take care of his vision. If he had animal scent, he wasn’t utilizing it here (which he should’ve been, with all honesty, if he asked for commentary from her, she’d give him that). Key was glad he had volunteered: he had clearly never faced either of the Mirrors and this was right out of their playbook. She snuck invisibly, watching with a smirk on her face as Beast Boy kept taking out fakes. Key knew she was gonna be exhausted after, but this? This kind of first impression was worth it. She kept this up until she knew she was at 50% with her energy levels and saw he was getting sloppy. Abruptly, she put her show to a stop, turned back on the lights, and pounced just like Evan taught her to.

_“Key thing here- haha, giggle-giggle, that pun was for you, ye little shit. Key thing here is to make sure you aim for the ear. Ear’s one of the three knockout points on the human head, but if you miss and go high you’ll hit the temples and that’s just perfect since that’s also a good knockout point. If you miss and go low, you’ll hit the jaw and bam, same fuckin’ thing.”_

She went to knock him out, but stopped as the computer declared her the winner and him the loser. Huh. Hadn’t been expecting that hard of a sparring program. Key stood, rolling her shoulders back before offering Beast Boy a hand.

He took it, grinning as he turned into a ferret and crawled up her arm. He settled on her shoulders, tiny ferret eyes watching her. She gave zero indication of flinching or being surprised and he gave her a ferret pout before jumping off and shifting to his monkey-human hybrid form.

“Wish you’d been more upfront with what you could do,” he replied. “Did I hit you once? Like, at all?”

“Nope,” she answered, popping the p. “I think you could’ve sniffed me out, maybe, but I distracted you a whole bunch. We can try it when I’m not tired.”

“Tired?” Nightwing asked, tilting his head as he approached.

Key chuckled. “Gotta go big for first appearances. Convincing a computer to have a subroutine that it doesn’t have is a bit of a stretch, even if the tech is all there. By the way, you all should be nicer to your computer, seriously taxed out.”

Nightwing raised an eyebrow. “It shouldn’t be mechanically-”

“Be nice to the tech, stop having emotional outbursts right on top of it, and for the love of God, whoever is having makeout sessions on top of it, I am going to personally fill your email full of spam,” Key replied. She gestured as she spoke, hands almost smacking through the air. “Drag up that ancient Zoo Tycoon Feces educational email server-”

“Key, chill.” Nightwing put a hand on her shoulder.

She snorted, but brought her hands back into her pockets. “I’m just saying, emotional data like that tends to fritz a machine a whole lot. I’ve got a theory that it’s one of the things that people can, understandably, blame on planned obsolescence. I can clean it out, but that’d mean I’d be in on any dirty secrets that happened on or around the holocomputer. I’d also have to have somewhere to _put_ it, because I can safely say you don’t want me turning it into an AI.”

“Okay, seriously,” Beast Boy replied, reminding Key that he was still there. Sloppy, Key. “What _are_ the limits of your powers?”

Key felt herself smirk under her helmet. “I’m on record for saying that I’m the Key to all Earth-based tech. S’not an understatement.” She raised her hand, snapping her fingers as she turned off the lights in the room. She snapped again, flicking the lights back on. “The lights are as easy as blinking.”

“How are you at viruses?” Beast Boy asked.

Key wove her fingers together, extending her hands together and popped her fingers and her elbows in one easy motion. “I haven’t met one I can’t beat. Show me the computer, get me a coffee with ice cubes in it, and I’ll beat it.”

He scrunched his nose and stuck his tongue between his teeth in disgust. “Seriously?”

“No,” she answered, snickering. “Messing with you. Coffee with a bit of milk and two sugars is fine.”

Key let him lead her into a room, wondering to herself if this team was going to think of her as another piece of kit (like the wrench or the screwdriver) or if connections were gonna happen.

She saw La’gaan on her way and gave him a wave. She felt herself relax as he waved back. Maybe this’ll be okay, Theo.

Key noted Blue Beetle was chatting with La’gaan and started to hear the odd, bug-like chitters again. She blinked, noticing that Blue Beetle seemed to be reacting to the same chitters, like he could understand them.

Oh, wonderful. Another Vendaval situation. Theo bit back a sigh. This should be _fun._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> short, but it covers a lot of the scenes i wanted to include within Key Distribution (which was establishing the connection to La'gaan for the La'gaan arc coming up, along with adding more fuel for a subplot that's been happening since Hackity Hack). More La'gaan to come, once I finish up the Rogue Hero arc (Hackity Hack, Cold Front, Whatever Happened to Sunlit Skies?), we will be launching directly into An Oppor-tuna-ty to Learn as the next arc.
> 
> Also Vendaval should not make a lot of sense to anyone reading this before Whatever Happened to Sunlit Skies?. Like it makes sense if you know Spanish (or at least are willing to humor my attempts at Spanish. I have better understanding of Ancient Greek than Spanish. I've been trying to get better with Duolingo, but Duolingo only goes so far).


End file.
